Other Opinion: Americans have duty to wave Old Glory

In recent days, we have all heard criticism of news anchormen, schoolteachers, store owners and students for "waving the flag" in various displays on windows, fences and lapels.

If you are like me, you find these criticisms unpatriotic and un-American.

Some have expressed concern that such displays might offend noncitizen students of foreign descent.

They were not offended when they passed beneath its streaming banner where it was posted to enter the institution of learning provided by the citizens loyal to the Constitution of which the flag is an emblem.

Neither were they offended when they walked the streets of our cities protected by policemen, firemen and EMTs who wore it emblazoned on their shoulders.

Good manners and common decency require that guests respect the customs of their hosts. If our manners offend them that much, then let them take our hospitality with our sincere best wishes and return to where Old Glory does not wave.

Others have suggested that wearing the flag on one's lapel diminishes his or her ability to be objective in a presentation of the grievous news of the past few weeks.

How does such an act impair objectivity?

How does one make a more comprehensive and objective report of about 6,000 murdered by forgetting that those who perished were his or her brothers and sisters?

How is objectivity helped by refraining from solidarity with the emblem of all that we as a nation hold dear and precious?

What journalist is more objective in his or her reporting when he or she forgets that the lives taken were taken in envy and hatred of freedom - the same freedom that makes it possible to ply the trade of a journalist without an imam, cleric or sheik censoring his or her reporting?

Others have expressed resentment at the flag-waving because it exalts and enthrones an emblem that they identify with oppression and slavery.

It's time that we in this country recognize that we have not always measured up to the high ideals of our founding documents. The Founders hoped our republic would mature to its true potential as revealed in those framing institutions. Old Glory is an emblem of that to which we aspire, not our failures.

I am thankful that African-Americans of the 19th and 20th centuries did not feel as a minority of their modern descendents, otherwise that flag might not be waving over the land of the free.

I rejoice that Americans of Japanese descent did not feel this way after Dec. 7, 1941; otherwise, I would be living under a Rising Sun.

I am thankful that Hispanic and Native Americans did not feel that way when they planted Old Glory atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, or when they were storming the beaches of Normandy; otherwise there would be no free world in which to debate these questions.

Let the critics express themselves fully, loudly, completely - it is their right.

Yes, their right because schoolchildren pledge their allegiance to the flag, because shopkeepers paint Old Glory in their windows, because civic clubs sing "God Bless America" with as much zeal as Kate Smith. It is their right to criticize.

However, it is our duty to be undaunted and unashamed in waving Old Glory over the land of the free and the home of the brave.